Michael & Noelle

THE GLOWN (chapter 3)

The day went by slowly as usual, a few customers stopped by, some just there to give their greetings. Mr. Barry left at four like he usually did to tend to his wife, and I closed up at 8.

"Uh, Ms. Madden?" I turn to find a man standing before me. He rode a bike, and had another paper bag in his hand.

"Yes?" I take a step back cautiously.

"I believe this is yours," he hands over the paper bag which I warily take from his hands, "just sign here."

"Did uh – do you know who gave this to you?"

"They wanted to keep it anonymous, thanks." The man climbs back onto his bike and rides away. I gave the place a quick once over before crawling into the safety of my car, and opening up the paper bag. Six wads of cash fell onto my lap, followed by another tiny piece of paper.

'for any trouble you may be having – S'

This time, there was a letter. S.

I stared at he bills stacked on my lap, reality hitting me. This was blood money . . . wasn't it?

"Uh . . . okay," I breath, slightly spreading my legs so the money would fall at my feet. I turn the key to my ignition, and drive away, my eyes wide as I stare down the street.

"Okay, okay, I have six thousand dollars just l – laying at y feet, no biggie . . . no biggie."

I needed to call James but I hadn't set up my phone to the car yet. Speaking of the car it ran so smoothly, and the GPS actually worked. I sent him a quick text to meet me at the McDonald's near his house and surprisingly he agreed. Most likely, he just wanted to whoop my ass for last night.

#

"James," I wave him over as he enters and he narrows his eyes when he sees me.

James was a bit shorter than me, with spiky black hair. He was also Asian, and cursed me out in his language whenever he felt like it. However he was my bestfriend from since I moved to this town five years ago, and he was amazing at his job as my bestie.

"I see you chose a public spot so that I couldn't murder you," he says, sliding into his seat.

"Smart thinking," I tell him and he fakes a smile, "but actually, if you could hold off on the manslaughter, I have something important to tell you."

"Don't tell me you have another man bleeding out in your car?"

"What? No, that's silly, I would've brought them over to your apartment," he gives me a flat face and I blow him kisses, "actually, I think our friend has been sending me gifts."

James raises an eyebrow, "what do you mean?"

"He . . . I think he bought me a car."

"A car?" James's eyebrows disappear into his hairline.

"He also bought me chocolates," I scratch my cheek, averting my eyes as James leaned back in his chair.

He lets out a breath, "well, I mean he did ruin –"

"He also gave me six thousand dollars."

James pauses before looking around quickly and then back to me.

"He gave you what? Where is it?"

"It's in the car," I bite my fingers, hoping that he'd know what to do.

"Well . . . uh . . . what're you gonna do with it?"

"Huh," my lips parted as I stared at him in disbelief, "you're supposed to tell me!"

"I'm supposed to tell you what to do with your gang man's money?"

"I - he's not my gang man, and his name is S – well at least I think it starts with S."

"Well S seems to be paying you back for your saving grace," James says sarcastically and I groan, "he should be paying me."

"Do you want the money, cause you can have it."

"Hell no I don't want your gang money!"

"Stop putting gang before everything!"

"Um, excuse me," an employee comes near our table, "you can't be here unless you've ordered and eaten something. Would you like to place an order?"

"I'm not interest in eating your animal cruelty meats, and –,"

"No thank you, uh – we'll just leave."

I knew James was about to land himself with a defamation lawsuit so I hauled him out of McDonalds and we stand in front of my car instead.

"This is nice," he admits, "do you even know what this man got you?"

"A brand new black car – wait, is that racist? Did he buy me a black car because -,"

"Lorelei," James sighs, pinching the the bridge of his nose, "I'm sure he didn't buy you a black car because you're black. Maybe because it's just a common color?"

"Mmm," I hum.

"This man bought you an Audi A8, it came out this year."

"Wow," I nod slowly, "so about the money . . ."

"Right, I'm not sure what I could possibly tell you to do with, Lorelei, just um . . . pay off bills maybe? Go shopping?"

"I wish I could find him," I mutter and James scoffs.

"Yeah, no, I assure you the last thing you wanna do is get further associated with someone like him."

"Someone like him?"

"A gangbanger, Lorelei, just . . . I don't know – accept his gifts and wait till he gets bored."